Monthly Archives: August 2013

We’re doing nearly nothing at Virginia Highland Haven Airstream Park. Arrived Tuesday, four days ago. We’ve taken several great walks including to the waterfall at the property’s western edge — the water is running great, really pretty.

Our location in beautiful Virginia Highlands

Sorry we took no camera — nor a whistle, nor compass, nor first aid kit, nor water, nor phone, nor did we think to tell anyone where we were going. We did carry a can of bear spray, highly recommended locally for walks most anywhere out here. Saw lots of deer track but no paw prints anywhere. We weren’t disappointed by this.

Jim assembled and raised Debbie’s Eagle-1 31′ vertical antenna yesterday. It’s atop the trailer, making it 40′ tall. Newly configured with a really dandy setup with an auto-coupler that gets its dc voltage through the coaxial cable. Working well, looks superb. If you have any questions, just email or call.

Dinner at Mickey G’s was good and very reasonable prices. Service was attentive and competent, food was wonderful, and the restaurant is small and busy on Friday night. Eat outside if you can, there is more room under the patio roof than inside. We tried the baked pasta sampler and a Greek salad. Both were excellent — the salad was perfect and all three items on the sampler were delicious.

We didn’t listen to music inside the store — the music on the sidewalk across the street was clearly superior — three men, playing a banjo, acoustic bass, and guitar and all three very good singers. They kept a rapt audience of 75-100 people with three to five folks dancing many of the songs. We enjoyed their music.

Today we really did nothing — no walks, no out-of-doors projects. Debbie fixed dinner for company and afterward we watched a movie together in the club house, Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Neat movie with historic significance — the first movie shot on location in three strip Technicolor (1934), and starred Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, and Silvia Sydney.

The weather has been cool and wet until today, when it was cool and sunny. A welcome change, and we may have a couple more such days before we head back toward Charlotte.

Full-timing allows us to experiment with strategies for heating, cooling, venting, cooking in our RV. We thought for years about installing a make-up air vent. We guardedly use an unvented 6,000 btu catalytic heater, and use the windows and roof vents to properly add oxygen and remove products of combustion. Safety concerns prevent us from using the heater when we’re asleep or without adequate ventilation.

Otherwise, we enjoy the soft warm glow and heating without any electricity. These benefits are especially nice when we are dry-camping and want to make our batteries last longer. Full-timers might have more opportunities to use this convenient heater, but it would work for anyone.

The heater has explicit recommendations for 24 square inches minimum each for fresh air intake and exhaust. No matter which window we use we seem to have a draft. Rain can limit which window we open. An intake located near the heater would serve the heater as well as the oven and stove.

We’ve read and heard that Wally Byam, Airstream Company’s founder, had gravity floor vents in his own Airstream trailers. Without air conditioning, the best place to find cool air is under the trailer. Jim proposed numerous times installing a gravity floor vent near the oven or catalytic heater. But management would not approve the project.

Jim found an approvable solution recently while we were at Alumapalooza at the Airstream Factory. Airstream Company (and others, too) installs Salem vents in the Eddie Bauer version of their trailers to vent flammable gases from motorcycles or gas cans in the trailer. Easy to install and operate, weatherproof, and durable, these are neat vents.

The vents can be a little difficult to source using the patent name, Salem vent. Just today, Jim found an easier name for search — 2-way hingeless vent. Several sources list these for under $30. Ours came with an abs plastic trim ring for the interior.

Here are pictures of the install:

Protect the aluminum before marking the cut lines

Cut completed and pilot holes drilled to inside

Small holes for locating, large hole for starting saw blade from indoors